title: Orthotopic heart transplantation: ten years' clinical experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Heart transplantation is the "gold standard" in the treatment of patients with end-stage heart failure who satisfy strict selection criteria.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed ten years' clinical experience (1996-2006) from 53 orthotopic transplants in our centre.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Low perioperative (3.7%) and long-term (7.5%) mortality rates yielded a 95% survival rate in the first year, 92% at five years, and 70% at ten years--significantly better than the corresponding rates worldwide. In addition, excellent functional recovery was achieved in all transplant recipients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The strict application of international criteria in the selection of both candidates and donors, together with uninterrupted, multidisciplinary follow up, have made it feasible to perform heart transplantation with excellent results, despite the curiously low number of potential recipients and the shortage of acceptable donor hearts.
authors.affiliation: First Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Transplantation Services, Onassis Cardiac Surgical Centre, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Athanassios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manginas
authors.forename: Petros
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sfyrakis
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stavridis
authors.forename: Loui
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Louka
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zarkalis
authors.forename: Loukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tsourelis
authors.forename: Stamatis
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Adamopoulos
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karavolias
authors.forename: Sotiria
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Apostolopoulou
authors.forename: Theofani
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Antoniou
authors.forename: Apostolos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thanopoulos
authors.forename: Panagiota
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rellia
authors.forename: Loukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kaklamanis
authors.forename: Efthymia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Melissari
authors.forename: Irini
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mastorakou
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Degiannis
authors.forename: Eleni
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Manoli
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Saroglou
authors.forename: Stefanos
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Geroulanos
authors.forename: Petros A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Alivizatos
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000401:mortality / Q000502:physiology; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018579:Patient Selection; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional
chemical_list: D002316:Cardiotonic Agents